A start.

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My stomach is acidic and tumbling just a bit, mostly just not happy about the sense that it is eating itself.  I have not had this particular problem when quitting before.  Jitters, check.  Some greater want of food (though much more mild), check.  But losing my interest in food and acid stomach are new.  Milk and cream haven't helped.  I need to get in to town soon, for milk for an experiment... and that and other groceries for other uses.

To think, Desert Cat and his mother make this, but I chickened out from trying it.  My experiment... kefir.  Some of it will be consumed raw, sometimes I'll blend and add fruit.  I don't really need this, usually.  But I do like it.  Regular yogurt, to me, is okay.  But really only so-so.  For whatever reason, I really like kefir.  But it is grossly expensive at the store.  Hmm... I ought to do a price comparison, of raw (or lightly pasteurized, can't find raw locally) milk in versus kefir out.  And add flavor costs if I go that way... a few ounces of frozen, blended, then added.  Even a few ounces of frozen fruits are murderously expensive.  Still, if you can ensure they aren't falsely flavored, you'll be in good stead.  Ignore "organic", just look for the ingredient lists.  They might have to add water if they clean then freeze, just because water will then be in there.  No sugar, no Greek stuff, nothing a lawyer wouldn't say to confuse you.  No gum that you know you can't chew, no acid or base that you are pretty sure are something else, no nothing.  Organic is just as bad as anything else.  Eating organic food does not make you better than those who eat at McDonalds.  About the same, just that one of you has even more money to toss.

Anyway, beside kefir, I really am thinking about green juice.  The latter being pretty much what it sounds like.  There are quite a few greens you can process.  Kale to char to dandelions to... pretty much anything rich in green.  Some do it because, if they remove the fiber, it is extremely nutrient rich and (without the fiber) extremely easy to digest.  Some use it as a cleanser.  Not sure I need that.  What I do need is heavier amounts of more easily digested nutrients.  My body does not always eat what I feed it.  Sometimes I will keep the fiber in, sometimes I will strain it out.  I might even consider beginning to study what native plants can be juiced in this manner, for on the trail.  Cheap, free, and relatively easy with a smooth big rock on a smooth boulder, perhaps with a little drain and container to catch it.  Something to be careful with, but a provider if caught out or provisions go missing or spoil.

Ah, here is a woman to discusses both topics.  I am definitely a breed.  For as much as I don't like European politics and it seems inbred leftism (on both their left and right, apparently as America has gone), I like the way they generally seem to live.  It is a bit more humble, but it isn't archaic... not completely.  Just something I got from watching the vids.  Oh, she might be a witch, but I think we all have our strange.  Plus, she explains it well enough, and is ill, just as I, if in a different way.  She has kept her beauty better than I kept my... wait... I never was handsome.  Never mind.  On to how to mess with kefir and how to make green juice.



A local, recently, asked me if I was a vegetarian.  I almost laughed at her.  But, like with the chicken video the other day, was able to hold back so as not to startle.  When women don't startle, they can hold a grudge.  And, remember, even a great grandmother can sometimes handily outlive a lower middle-aged man, thus make even a long life if he has one miserable.  Anyway, I am beginning to think some locals really think I am a hippie.  Well, a hippie-biker-pagan-lib-organo-vegan.  Bleh.  Uhrm, among other things.  *cough*  A few know, or think they know, better.  But there is always that little bit of uncertainty.  Oh, I see it.  Yeah, no.  I am simply figuring out how to work my system, and trying to figure out, beyond that, how to keep it going when I am alone, away from society.  You don't just walk off the map and hope, unless you plan on dying.  I have been out there.  I can do it.  But it has been a very long time, in a very different health situation.  I am experimenting and learning, while and where it is safe.  If I mess up, a few days, maybe a month down.  Out there, death.  Here, and now, and many topics.  To become, again, to within my capacity, a master of all things.  Or as close as I can get back to such a notion.  And all withing a very tight budget here, and no access to markets out there.  Practicality is another mother of invention, and a real *$@_*3$ mother at that, sometimes.  When practicality and necessity both become your bride, you better keep on your toes.

I did get one set of holes drilled, and will get that lid cut too.  But I went looking for the measuring device and magic marker to mark the other one.  After an half hour of searching, I needed a break.  So... I suppose, back to it.  I'll look just a wee longer.  If it doesn't show I'll at least finish the first bucket, looking for the other parts tomorrow.  It's 77F in here, 95F outside.  I'd like to see what a single cooler will do.  Not bad, would like to see better.  Even just three to five degrees would be significant.  Later.